Cannabis retailer Superette is no stranger to finding innovations within the highly regulated space, but it’s looking to the past for its latest concept.

Suprette is taking inspiration from a nostalgic retail environment, the humble neighbourhood grocery store, in a 800 square foot space in Toronto’s Stackt market, a collection of permanent and pop-up small format stores located within shipping containers.

The grocery inspiration can be seen from the interior design and customer flow, to merchandising and even product assortment. Superette’s cannabis, fashion, accessories and in-house collections are merchandised alongside Superette-ified household staples like Super O’s, Tomato Suup, Sup Spam, and more.

The activation is a slight variation on the grab’n’ go express convenience concepted, Sip ‘N’ Smoke, Superette launched near the city’s Trinity Bellwoods park this past summer, which was focused on more convenient and ready-to-consume formats, like pre-rolls and beverages.

Eschewing the menu-first layout approach of most weed shops, it’s staying true to the typical browse-friendly grocery store experience. And while the retail brand is inviting customers to shop with their eyes as they would in a traditional supermarket, it is also providing guidance from a budtender, should they need it.

Superette is also offering a Wheel of Fortune-style “Super Spin” game and Rocket Shaped gumball machine to round out the shopping experience, “where nostalgia, gamification and familiarity converge.”

Superette co-founder and chief brand officer Drummond Munro and co-founder and CEO Mimi Lam are veterans of Tokyo Smoke’s pre-Canopy era. Lam served as director of corporate development and Munro as head of retail development for the company back when it was a coffee shop and marijuana accessory chain in Toronto. The duo’s mandate was to create a lot of the same things that Tokyo Smoke had going for them – an aesthetically pleasing store, as well as great customer experience.

Superette says that to stand out in a “sea of cannabis retailers” it’s taken a “fresh approach” to the in store  experience.

The brand, which launched in 2017, also says that it will also be expanding into the U.S. market in 2022.

LA’s We are Prismatics, a full service shop that specializes in cannabis marketing, assisted with creative communications.